Halo:The End
Prelude Before every Storm, there is said to be calm. Or relative calm, compared to what is to come. But in this case, it was not so. Before this Storm, there was unrest. Unhappyness and discontent. That discontent turned to anger. And so, the most basic reaction to anger occurred, to fight; to rebel. And this was only the prelude. Sounds familiar? Indeed, it is. The Government and the military, otherwise known as the United Nations Space Command, tried to stop it. The 'Rebels', as they were dubbed by the loyalists, reacted by harming Government interests on UNSC colonys. But they tried to do so in the hopes of achieving their goals. It only got worse. And, just as the UNSC was getting a handle on the discontent, and unrest, they came. They came and blew both fractions away. Over a time frame of 23 and a half years, the Covenant slaughtered millions upon millions of Humans; soldiers, sailors, and civilians alike; to ashes. LEST WE FORGET ----- The UNSC Destroyer took a hit from a plasma torpedo amidships, venting the atmosphere and bodies from the affected sections. The Plasma lines on the Covenant Cruiser, that had launched the Torpedo, heated and turned red as Plasma collected for another shot. The Destroyer continued on, firing two hyper-dense solid blocks of a mixture of Tungsten and Uranium from the Magnetic Accelerator Canon. Archer Missiles were rippled off by hundreds, along with a Single SHIVA Nuke; all headed towards the Covenant Cruiser. ''The Cruiser took the nuke, which damaged the Shields. The first MAC shot brought down the shields and the second blowing a hole through the engineering compartments, which unpressurized them. The Archer missiles impacted next, blowing chunks out of the hull, killing the crews in the sections hit. It was not one sided however, as the Cruiser managed to fire off a plasma torpedo, which, by a stroke of luck, impacted and completely destroyed the UNSC Destroyer's engines, along with killing crew in the surrounding areas '' ''Both ships were marooned in deep space, with power, but with no way to maneuver. ----- UNSC ''Walker'' The UNSC Destroyer, Walker, maneuvered wildly as the atmosphere vented from compartments, blowing the ship off in random direction, with a . The crew was frantically firing thrusters and attempting damage control. The Captain, Commander Adam Whitelaw, was in the ships medical bay, (which was located in the middle of the ship, escaping decompression), after getting thrown around the Bridge when the first decompression occured. The UNSC Walker had been ordered back to Earth, to assist in the First Battle of Earth. However, Walker had gotten sidetracked and had instead evacuating UNSC personnel and Civilians on Tribute, taking aboard as many people as they could hold, as the Transports had taken all they could safely take. The Walker had then been reassigned to the UNSC escort screen to assist the Transports home. They also got a 2 pairs of Longswords (the ship was forced to dump a few of its Warthogs and a tank to make room for the things that had to be moved to accommodate the four Longswords), as need for space on other ships freed them up. Then, a Covenant fleet, the one that glassed Reach, slipped into the system and glassed Tribute. The Transports and Escort screen had not jumped yet-and few did. The Covenant did a tactical jump, closing to extremely close ranges with the convoy. 5 transports jumped; the rest were unable to jump and were forced to stay behind and be obliterated. The Escort screen fared worse; all but 2 ships were destroyed. The only 2 ships to escape were the Walker, and a Corvette, the Northampton, both of which had been ordered off defending the remaining transports to collect the escape pods from damaged and crippled ships. They only managed to get a couple dozen, saving about 300 lives, including the commander of the evacuation group, Rear-Admiral James Ruban, before the UNSC screening force was completely obliterated, but not before wiping out the vast majority of Covenant Ships. The Walker randomly slipped away in a random trajectory, following the Cole Protocol, while the Northampton slipped directly to Earth, since its location was already compromised. The Northampton was later destroyed in the fight above Earth. The bulk of the surviving Covenant ships engaged their Slipspace drives and jumped to Earth, while a single Cruiser was detached to destroy the Human Destroyer Walker ----- Crusier ''Relentless'' The single Covenant Crusier, the Relentless, had been a new addition to the fleet, right out of the Shipyard. It part of the Third wave of the Covenant attack on Reach, its first campaign. It already destroyed a Human Destroyer and three Human Frigates before being tasked to glass the Human world called Tribute. There had been nothing there, so they had simply glassed the planet. When the Crusier attacked the Convoy, arriving a minute behind the rest of the Division. Even then, since there had been no warning to the Humans, they had not expected to be attacked. A few human ships jumped, while others attacked the Covenant ships, destroying one, disabling another, and damaging yet two more. However, the Human ships were just not able to survive against dozens and dozens of Plasma Torpedoes, and the Human convoy perished a minute later, with the two surviving ships retreating. Due to the Relentless's late arrival, the ship had been detached in temporary disgrace to destroy the retreating Human Destroyer, to regain lost Honor. 01 "Shit!", the Engineering Officer on the Bridge screamed as status reports came in from different areas of the ship. "Admiral, Engines are down! Ah damn, they knocked out all of them,Sir!" The Admiral James Ruban had taken over Captain Whitelaw's command, since Whitelaw had been wounded in the battle. "Lieutenant, did they get backup engine too?", the Admiral asked the Lieutenant. "Yes sir, they knocked out primaries, secondaries, and backup. We're down to Chemical thrusters, Sir!" the El-tee responded. "Sir! Incoming boarders from the Cruiser! I got lots of them!", the Tactical Officer reported loudly and quickly. Admiral Ruban ordered calmly, "Launch the 4 Longswords, and get Pelicans prepped to board the Cruiser. The crew is to repel boarders!" ----- On the Covenant Crusier Relentless, there was much confusion. The Crew had not expected the single Human ship to be able to knock out their shields and disable their ship. The crew of Sangheili, Unggoy, and Huragok had been expecting a simple, cut-and-dried process of launching Plasma Torpedos, and destroying incoming missiles with pulse lasers. But the Human ship had not tried to run, but attacked as soon as the Crusier dropped out of slipspace. The crew had lost a sixth of its crew, which was composed of mostly the engineering crew. The Shipmaster, Fono 'Rannahee, had been a Shipmaster of a damaged ship before, in a Frigate, over 20 years ago. He had been part of the Invasion of Harmony, and had been ordered out alone to observe the planet. His Frigate had been attacked by a single human crusier, the UNSC Atlanta, after he had ordered his plasma lines ready to glass the planet. The Crusier, anticipating an attack, had attacked, and damaged his Frigate, and he jumped away, just missing a MAC slug that would have destroyed his Frigate.